What is intelligence beyond, preceding, and following human intelligence? This week, Ayana is joined by guest James Bridle in a conversation that considers multiple forms of intelligence and ways of being. 

Bringing a rich background of research on forms of intelligence, from artificial to mycelial, James posits that it is a critical failure to use human intelligence as the benchmark for all forms of knowing. Seeing intelligence as both relational and embodied, James points out that knowing has never been an independent or alienated act. Rather, it is our specific set of modern conditions which primes us for alienation and separation – both from ourselves and from the earth. 

Separation, stemming from the capitalist and extractive logic embedded in every aspect of our lives, also shapes the ways we view technology. When those who create the technology, the algorithms, and the AI that come to dictate marketplaces and the flow of information, their logic shapes the ways that these tools are used.  James points out though, that these “tools” of capitalism are just that – tools. 

James encourages listeners to move from helplessness and fear to agency.  In the same way that human agency created these systems and methodologies, we can also harness our agency to change the way they are used, to rethink our relationships to technology itself. How we heal our relationships is how we heal the world.

James Bridle is a writer, artist, and technologist. Their artworks have been commissioned by galleries and institutions and exhibited worldwide and on the internet. Their writing on literature, culture, and networks has appeared in magazines and newspapers including Wired, the Atlantic, the New Statesman, the Guardian, and the Financial Times. They are the author of New Dark Age (2018) and Ways of Being (2022), and they wrote and presented "New Ways of Seeing" for BBC Radio 4 in 2019. Their work can be found at http://jamesbridle.com.

♫ The music featured in this episode is “Lonehead,” “Open Wound,” and “Walking Backwards” by Memotone.

Episode References

Ways of Being by James Bridle

“The Great Distractor” by James Bridle

“What is our relationship with alien consciousnesses?” by James Bridle

“Air pollution rots our brains. Is that why we don’t do anything about it?” by James Bridle, The Guardian

Gregory Bateson | Cybernetics, Systems Theory, Epistemology from Britannica

READING Recommendations

Ways of Being by James Bridle

New Dark Age by James Bridle

“What is our relationship with alien consciousnesses?”

“Becoming Digital” by James Bridle, Phenological Mismatch

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